The parents of terminally-ill infant Charlie Gard are ending their legal battle

The INSIDER Summary:

The parents of critically ill British infant Charlie Gard decided to end the legal battle to bring the baby to the U.S. for treatment Monday.

Recent scans and medical tests confirmed that it is too late for an experimental treatment to work on Charlie.

Although Charlie's fate has been decided, his case will lead to more questions about the treatment of children with rare diseases.

The fate of British infant Charlie Gard, who was born with a rare genetic disease, has captivated the world. Now, the baby's parents have ended their legal fight to bring Charlie to the U.S. for an experimental treatment after recent medical tests and scans showed that the 11-month-old had irreversible muscular damage, according to The Guardian.

During what was scheduled to be a two-day hearing, Charlie's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard told the judge that they would withdraw their application to have their son receive treatment in the U.S., a decision they said they had made privately on Friday.

"Charlie is Charlie and we wouldn't change him for the world. All our efforts are for him, we only want to give him a chance at life," Charlie's mother said during the hearing. "There's one simple reason for Charlie's muscular deterioration [and] that was time."

Yates said this decision was one of the hardest things she and her partner Chris Gard have ever done. She said they still believe Charlie could have survived had the experimental treatment they sought in the U.S. been started earlier.

Grant Armstrong, the family's lawyer, explained that experts said the "window of opportunity no longer exists" and "For Charlie, it's too late, time has run out, irreversible muscular damage has been done and the treatment can no longer be a success," The Guardian reported.

His parents were fighting for their son to go to the U.S. to seek experimental therapy. The London hospital where Charlie was being treated argued that it was not in his best interest. Ultimately, Dr Michia Hirano — the American neurologist who had agreed to treat Charlie — flew from the U.S. to examine Charlie's MRI and EEG scans in person and agreed that the experimental treatment was not a viable option.